Today, the wife calls me on her way home from work, says the engine stalled and won't start. I drive to meet her, she calls five minutes before I got there said it started right up. I check out the van, it was running a little rough so I suspected bad gas and filled the tank as it was nearly empty. Then I proceeded to drive it home, after about eight minutes I noticed that the van was loosing power, a couple minutes later much less power and the engine began to run rough, It then began to make a rattling noise, I hope its not what I think it is but the engine was vibrating from running rough, also it did not make the rattle when coasting or when accelerating, only when at driving speed. I turned the corner trying to just get it home and the temp needle slammed from normal all the way up, and the van stalled again with coolant boiling and oil smoking. Is there anything other than a blown engine that could cause this? Thanks.
lovesmonica
08-23-2007, 10:57 PM
UPDATE: It defiantly was the result of an overheat, I checked fluids before taking it home, oil was fine and coolant tank was full, I did not open the radiator as it was still at operating temp. The temp gauge never gave anything other than a normal read out until just before it stalled both times. The wife described nearly the same situation except for the power loss, that all of a sudden the temp shot through the roof and the van stalled. I went down there just a bit ago to add some water to get it home, the radiator was of course completely empty. Every time I crank it the coolant starts to boil again so I cycled some water through cranking every five minutes or so, an hour and a half later its still hot. Water appears to be disappearing somewhere as I have added almost five gallons of water to the radiator through the process, there is a slow drip from behind the engine on the belt side but not fast enough to account for the water loss as fast as it was, I checked to see if water was coming out the tail pipe but it is dry. It seems to fire on every fourth crank cycle but not enough to start anything.
lovesmonica
08-23-2007, 11:53 PM
UPDATE 2: I did get it to start after hours of cooling down, but scratch the no water from exhaust, when driving it the two blocks back to the house I nearly fogged the neighborhood with white smoke from the exhaust, so blown head gasket, Right? I have been slowly loosing fluid for about a month, I suppose that is where it was going, Also the o2 sensor light had come on a few times, probably also from the coolant leak..... Grrr. Ok now I guess I'm asking for opinions on options, its a 96 with about 170000 miles. Is it worth tearing down to replace the gasket, considering how hot I think it got, and mileage would it be better to replace the engine? What kind of kick to the nuts can my pocket book expect as a DIY? Also does anyone know why the temp sensor acted the way it did and also why no fluid would have been drawn from the coolant tank, it sat for over two hours between the first stall and the attempt to drive it home.
lovesmonica
08-25-2007, 12:19 AM
no help from anyone. . . huh, disapointing.
hcmq
08-25-2007, 05:15 PM
Sorry I agree with you this site is frequently dissapointing.
You have a classic blown head gasket. What caused it who knows. Could be lack of rad servicing over the years, clogged heater core, just plain bad, etc.
I doubt new gaskets will solve this. Unless you have a trusted machine shop near by.
Times like this you need a really sharp and honest mechanic. super rare at best!
If you don't have any of the above options and you like the van I would opt for a complete re-built engine. Prolly in the $3k-$5k range installed. Call around and go for a brand name like jasper.
You can get a used 05-06 grand caravan for about 12-20k
I wish I could help more. Good luck-
lovesmonica
08-25-2007, 11:45 PM
Just a bit before this happened the heater wasn't heating well so I back flushed the heater core, a bunch of black crap came out and it heated great, three days later the head gasket.... any possibility they are related?
Arnierych
08-26-2007, 08:00 AM
I have a '96 Caravan Sport. I paid $7500 for it with 70,000 miles on it in 2001. It was well-taken care of, but the engine began running rough, then the mechanic took it for a ride, and part of the engine actually busted off @ 100,000 miles. It cost $5,000 to put a good, rebuilt motor in it. It was worth it , as the body is in great shape... tranny is good. I now have 159,000 miles on it!
hcmq
08-26-2007, 10:43 AM
Yes they are most likely related. What happened was that you cleared out all the gunk and uncovered a small leak. The coolant has been leaking out and a clog in the overflow tank was preventing it from being sucked in to the rad. then you over heated the engine badly.
Some other things:
Your question about the temp needle is common. Manufacturers put a buffer on the needle so it doesn't move drastically because of too many customer complaints from people that don't know why the needle is moving and bring the vehicle into the delaership!
Now this is an old-tech engine with cast iron block (Not sure about your year heads) you might be ok with just a new heater core, head gaskets, and rad/engine flush. As long as no coolant got into the oil. Hence the reason I stated you need a good machine shop to measure the flatness of the block and heads
mfahey
08-26-2007, 12:27 PM
I agree with the above that what you are describing is a blown head gasket or possibly a cracked head which the 3.0s are somewhat known for. Certainly get the heads and block check for flatness. The other possible thing that may have happened as a result of the overheating and loss of power is that the piston skirts may have partially been collapsed. This won't keep the van from running but generally it will be noisier from the pistons slapping the cylinder wall.
